Personnel Relations in Industry (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1921 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIX BRITISH EXPERIMENTS IN JOINT MANAGEMENT Organization of British Labor A remarkable development in joint management, and one carrying many lessons, is to be found in Great Britain. British labor has long led the world in organization. Here unions first gained a foothold, obtained legal recognition, and rose to an established place in all industrial relations. Collective bargaining has long been the regular method of adjusting such relations. The movement for the open shop disappeared many years ago. The bargaining, however, has been of the orthodox, hostile character. One result of this was a complex mass of restrictions upon production. The day's work was stereotyped to suit the slowest workers. Countless safeguards against competition barred apprentices and the partially skilled from many trades. Many trade practices were deliberately designed to restrict production. All these things had been built up by the unions as necessary defenses against driving, rate-cutting, underbidding, sweating, and other offensive and often production-reducing devices of the employers. Effect of War on Unions Then came the war. The transformation of industry and the great productive exertions demanded by national existence were impossible if the restrictions inherent in industrial conflict remained, so the unions were called upon to surrender their weapons. They agreed to the introduction and training of new and unskilled workers for the "dilution" of the previously guarded trade monopoly. All limits on production were removed. Most significant of all, they surrendered their most effective weapon, the strike. The unions charged that this surrender was not met in the same spirit by the employers, but that these refused to raise wages in accord with the increased cos...